All new domain name. All new, and completely original, look (see how it sparkles). Same old dull content. I am style above substance; form above function. I am the lipstick on the pig.

Basically, my old blog was of a bygone era. An era where I was anonymous and whinging about my day job. Not actually having that (or, strictly speaking, any) job now, I have no further need of anonymity. Quite the opposite – now I want people to know who I am. To that end, I came out, so to speak, on my old blog a while back and, as I try to get people to take me a little more seriously at this writing lark, I began to feel a little embarrassed by my old blog’s name. I didn’t really want to have to mutter ‘Jimmy Page’s Trousers‘ under my breath when people (and by that I mean important people who might give me money one day) asked for email addresses or the like.

So, I did what anyone would do when a good and loyal friend is considered ‘uncool’ by the in-crowd – I pretended I didn’t actually know Jimmy Page’s Trousers and went off with the cool kids to smoke and drop rocks from the overpass. Sure, I felt a pang of guilt but, you know, they had beer.

Jimmy Page’s Trousers is no more. From now on, when people think of Gerry Hayes, they will think of staring into space. Pretty apt really.

I’d really appreciate it anyone who linked to jimmypagestrousers.com could update their sites, links, blogrolls, or whatever to link to www.stareintospace.com

Also, you can click the subscribe icon (if you have one) in your browser’s address bar or click here to subscribe to new posts in your favourite RSS reader/aggregator thing.

Comments and suggestions are (genuinely) welcomed. There will be some more tweaking of things that vex me with the design, so feel free to add to the list. Really.

Happy new year to you RM. Thanks for good wishes. As for import, the WordPress stuff at the back end of both blogs has an import/export thing. First time it messed up horribly but a second attempt went flawlessly (who knows why).

Has my (slight) change of identity caused so much consternation? I am the man of a thousand faces. I am an enigma, a riddle. Not really of course. I’ve just the one face (on the right-hand post-it above) and I wouldn’t have picked it given a choice of mine and that French bell-ringer bloke’s.

Thank you for wishes of hugs, kisses and success. I would be quite happy for any of those to be thrust upon me. Right back atcha!

Hey… What’s happened… I really liked the old website! :) But this one’s nice too. Hmm…Aren’t you clever :) – I don’t buy all that it just happened rubbish -. you’ve worked at this and it’s good. Well done you!

All the best – coughingly, wheezingly, bugger, didn’t mean ot spread germs into WordPress. (The Guinness sortta worked, for the duration of the drinking anyway).

Linda: Did I give the impression that it just happened? I didn’t mean to – I slaved at this; slaved, I tell you.

I wanted something original here. The old blog, although I’d modified it quite a bit, was based on a freely available WordPress template. It wasn’t terribly common but others were using it. So, it’s gone in favour of originality. And greenness. Thank you for saying nice things about it. I’m deeply insecure and can never get enough positive reinforcement.

Babaloo: Well, you should stop by more often then. Thank you for kind words – much appreciated. I am deeply insecure and require constant praise to keep from curling up in the nearest corner. I’m good for another hour or so now.

Love the template. I really wish I knew how to do something with mine. I feel silly having the same template as Phil Barron — who had it first. But, I’m stuck with the templates that are available on WordPress and they charge you to amend it, and what with these straitened times and all — and the fact I’m a penniless writer.

Kevin: Thanks for stopping by. As you seem to be self-hosting your blog, you should be able to apply one of the WordPress freebie templates. There are loads at http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/ or google it for lots more (apologies if I’m teaching you to suck eggs here).

I used a free theme for ages but wanted something a bit more personal and unique. I did design it myself. I am quite the renaissance man.

Gerry Hayes

I mostly sit around all day and drink tea. Occasionally, I write stuff and send it to strangers so they can humiliate me and deride my efforts. Other than the self-harm to dull the shame of failure, it's not a bad life. Like I say, there's tea.